This invention relates to improvements in ice cream dispensers of the type for forming and shaping bulk ice cream as a bar of ice cream on a stick.
I recognize that others have previously provided various devices for dispensing bulk ice cream in the shape of a bar, ball, or other configuration and into which a stick may thereafter be inserted. For instance, the "Ice Cream Form Device" of U.S. Pat. No. 1,757,799, which shows and describes an ice cream scoop for dispensing bulk ice cream in the form of a bar of ice cream, and into which a stick may then be inserted; and the "Ice Cream Disher" of U.S. Pat. No. 1,888,739, which shows and describes a tonglike device for dispensing bulk ice cream in the form of a ball, and which includes a funnel-like guide through which a stick may then be inserted into the ice cream ball.
Others have also previously provided pistol-like scoops for dispensing bulk ice cream in various forms, for instance, as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,595,393 and 3,822,976.
However, as far as I am aware, no one has heretofore provided an ice cream dispenser which receives and positions a stick in a bar of ice cream as the same is shaped and formed by the dispenser.
Of course, when a stick is inserted into a preformed bar or ball of ice cream, the path of insertion creates a channel through which the stick may slip right back out. This is in contradistinction to the present invention of forming ice cream about the stick, in a manner such that the ice cream fills the various irregularities and interstices of the stick and thus securely anchors the same within the ice cream bar.
Also, many prior devices for dispensing bulk ice cream are of a construction that does not meet present health regulations, such as those relating to specifications for parts of food serving implements and ease of disassembly for purposes of cleaning the same.